John Eden

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Rewired For Dub

Horace Andy’s From The Roots album for Ariwa was apparently such a stormer that people have been begging for this dub set for some time now. Mad Professor gives the people what they want, they just have to wait a while sometimes!

I’ve not heard the original LP, but that doesn’t detract in any way from enjoying this – in fact I love discovering the full vocal after having caned its “shadow” in the dub for ages – there’s a real jolt from hearing those chopped up sylables forming actual words and sentences…

So, to business then. FFWD to Dub is Horace Andy coming in and out of the same riddim to Aisha’s stone cold classic “The Creator”. The Coolest Dub really benefits from the instrumentation and vocals being stripped right back and the live horn section gliding over the top of it all… A nice bit of sax on there – and it isnt often you’ll hear me say that.

Dub Her For Me sounds like it’s on a particularly teasing rendition of the hot milk riddim which leaves Horace stranded in the echo chamber, not able to tell her his feelings because Mad Prof keeps chucking in his entire armoury of effects. One of those dubs which has your entire mind reaching out for the 30% of the track that you know is just around the corner, but always stays out of reach. A load of producers could learn a lot from listening to this one…

Nuff tricks still under wraps in the Mad Professor’s lab. Cavernous harsh bass on some tracks, warm soothing bass on others. Vocals telling a story on some tracks, voices reduced to jittery alien noises on others… “street every day – the youth congregate… gah/gah/gah/gah/gah/…..”

The variety isn’t just down to production though, Ariwa have gone to the trouble of working with some serious names to back up a legend like Horace Andy. Mafia and Fluxy are UK stalwarts who don’t get the credit they deserve, but Sly and Robbie also lay down some of the tracks, and it seems like legendary vocal group Knowledge (see reissues on Blood & Fire and Makasound of their 70s material) serve as backing vocalists?

This is getting serious rotation ’round here at the moment – check it out if you get the chance.

Available on Ariwa LP (with 10 tracks) and CD (14 tracks!) from all good reggae stockists…

I was going to add, I think the ole’ Prof is seriously underrated, and I am not sure why he is so regularly not appreciated as he should be….maybe cos he’s from Peckham and not Kingston, or maybe just cos he has always been on the scene producing x amounts of records without much fanfare…?

Either way, I find that every album he makes inna dubwise style usuallyhas about three really really great tunes on ’em…esp the M+ F stuff…

He’s criminally under-rated! I’m amazed how much he either gets taken for granted or overlooked. If someone in JA made a dub album half as good as this in 2006 then everyone would be going mental for it…